


Small Things

by giantessmess



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, F/F, Fluff, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-05
Updated: 2016-11-05
Packaged: 2018-08-29 04:18:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,225
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8475034
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/giantessmess/pseuds/giantessmess
Summary: A year into her co-habitation with Cat, Kara comes home with a little pet kitten without permission.





	

Carter seemed flustered, hurrying Kara in front of him as if worried his mother would somehow break with tradition and get home early on a Monday evening.

“This is perfect, see? Mom never goes into my bathroom,” he said.

“Why? Too messy?” Kara joked, but she gaped at the perfectly clean white tiles, cream counter, crisp white towels. Carter was too preoccupied with the kitten to notice.

“It looks so small. Is it going to be alright?”

“It’s a girl,” Kara said, holding the little tabby close. She stroked its wet fur. “I don’t know.”

She didn’t want to tell Carter how she’d found it, about the sack. About the other kittens. He was busy making a spot under the sink, adding pillows that looked far too expensive for a stray, a blanket made of cashmere. Kara felt bad enough already. But she didn’t want to set the kitten down. She had been so convinced it was dead too. But Carter reached out, holding a towel.

“Come on, I’ll dry her.”

Kara sighed.

“We’re in so much trouble, aren’t we?” she said. He just gave her a look.

“Mom will understand.”

“No, she won’t. And we’re not telling her. I’ll…” she looked around at the bathroom, as if it might hold the answers. “Figure something out.”

“She’s not _that_ allergic. We had a cat once, when I was little. She took antihistamines.”

Kara was weighing up her options. Telling Cat straight away. Taking the poor kitten to a shelter….a shelter filled with unwanted animals. Or somehow keeping it in Carter’s bathroom forever. It wouldn’t be so bad, right? They could take shifts. She jumped when she heard the sound of the elevator, Cat’s heels making their way down the main hallway to the apartment door.

“Oh Rao, she’s home.” She looked in the bathroom mirror and brushed at her shirt, trying to rid it of fur. Carter gaped up at her.

“How is she back? Those meetings run late every time!”

“Kara?” Cat was calling from the living room. Kara heard the sound of her handbag hitting the floor. “Sweetheart?”

Kara walked deliberately slowly, trying to keep the panic off her face. Cat was in the kitchen now, drinking from a bottle of water. She saw Kara and smiled.

“You’re early,” Kara said.

“I thought we could all go out to dinner, while it’s not too busy,” Cat narrowed her eyes. “Why are you standing all the way over there?”

“No reason,” Kara made her way over, giving Cat a soft kiss. Nothing happened. Cat still seemed suspicious.

“Where’s Carter?”

“His room,” Kara said, trying to sound casual. “You know. Homework.”

“Mmmmm.”

Kara mumbled that she needed to go and change, rushing off before Cat could say anything else. She could hear Cat heading for Carter’s room, but she resisted the urge to eavesdrop. There wasn’t any yelling, so maybe they were in the clear. The kitten would be fine during dinner. It was fine. It would totally all be fine.

Cat started sneezing right when the appetizers were served, her eyes growing glassy. She waved away Kara’s concern and Carter’s worried look.

“I’m fine. Probably caught this from that little weasel in marketing this afternoon, sniffling during the meeting.”

Kara murmured an agreement in response, and tried not to meet Carter’s eye.

 

So, it turned out that kittens were a lot of work. Who knew? They pooped everywhere for starters. Carter wailed that his room smelled, even though Kara was sneaking in and out bags of kitty litter like crazy (the clean kind, the gross kind). It meowed, which was cute to begin with, all squeaky like a toy, but it kept Carter up, scratched at his bathroom door, and then pooped in his closet when he let it into his room. Carter had wanted to name it Hamilton, as some kind of hint to Kara about his preferred birthday present (as if she and Cat didn’t know. Cat had already paid far too much for tickets). But after scraping poop out of his school shoes, he demoted the kitten to Jefferson.

“You know she’s a girl,” Kara said. “Can’t you name her, I dunno, Sally?”

“Gender is a social construct,” Carter muttered, running his shoes miserably under the tap in his bathroom. Jefferson made an annoying squeak.

The most baffling thing about that week was Cat, who continued to sneeze and rub at her reddened eyes, but who said nothing. Kara should have been suspicious, after all this was the woman who had guessed very easily that she was Supergirl. Who had taken down powerful politicians with her reporting skills. But Kara had her own job, her flying-over-the-city job, Carter’s deteriorating happiness and the tiny little furball to stress over. Which is why she was blind-sided when she came home on Friday night to Cat sitting on the couch. Not just because it was only five-thirty, or because she had some competitive baking show on the TV. But because the kitten was sitting in her lap.

“I….”

Cat looked her up and down, and went back to watching British people freak out about cake.

“Ground rules,” Cat said. She didn’t sound mad, and or like she was congested with allergies. She gave Jefferson a scratch, but the kitten was conked out asleep. Kara walked carefully up to them, and sat tentatively on the couch.

“Yes?”

“One, I will never smell cat shit. Not once, Kara. Two, same goes for urine. Three, it is not staying in Carter’s room, it will stay in the laundry. No beds. Ever. Couch requires a blanket. One of you will rid it of fleas regularly. And…” she met Kara’s eyes with a challenging look. “I get to name it.”

“I’m sorry…”

“Nope,” Cat shook her head. “Punishment still to come.”

Kara sighed.

“It was all alone and sick and…”

Cat snorted.

“I should have known it was you. Carter has never even brought a house plant home without my permission.”

“I should have asked,” Kara said.

“Yes, you should have.”

“Are you…really mad?”

“No,” Cat said, sounding like she was thinking it over. “Not now that I’m taking the damn allergy pills.”

Kara stared at the TV, still bewildered by Cat’s choice of program.

“I was thinking of calling it something annoying, just so you’d have to call it that every day,” Cat said. “But then I realised I’d have to say the stupid name too.”

“Carter calls her Jefferson.”

“Not Hamilton?”

“She pooped in his shoes.”

“Hmmmmm.”

“Cat, I found her drowning in a sack,” Kara ventured.

“Feeling sorry for it won’t make it less annoying, Kara,” Cat said, even as she continued to stroke the kitten’s fur. “I could hear her teeny, tiny meows from our bedroom at two AM.”

“You could call her Lois?” Kara said, trying not to smile. Cat rolled her eyes, but it was clear she was fighting her own amusement.

“God no.” She looked up at Kara, affection in her expression. She sighed. “What am I going to do with you?”

When Kara didn't answer, Cat rolled her eyes and opened her arms. Kara gratefully relaxed into them, careful of the sleeping kitten. Cat kissed the top of her head.

“Jefferson is fine, if a little terrifyingly patriotic. I can’t wait for Carter’s obsession with that musical to wane.”

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: "Married!Supercat prompt: Kara finds a stray cat and brings it home, Cat is allergic so Carter helps Kara hide the animal until Cat finally catches them after sneezing for a week."  
> More prompts can be sent care of actualhumangirl on tumblr. Can't promise to do them all, but all will be considered with thought.


End file.
